Baltimore County Digest

Baltimore County Digest

July 18, 2006

Ehrlich appoints 2 to school board

A community leader from Carney and a former Baltimore County high school principal have been appointed to the Baltimore County school board, and a current member whose term has expired will remain on the board for an additional year, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s office announced yesterday.

Meg O'Hare, a Social Security Administration retiree, will take the at-large seat vacated by Tom Grzymski, a former school board president. She is chairwoman of the organization of area educational advisory councils for the school system and president of the Carney Improvement Association. She is also a member of the county's Minority Achievement Advisory Group and the Education Coalition of Baltimore County.

H. Edward Parker Jr. was principal of what is now Sollers Point Technical High School until he retired in 2000. He also serves on several panels, including the Baltimore County Planning Board and the Education Committee of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. He was appointed to fill a vacancy created when Luis Borunda, who represented Essex and Dundalk, left in April to become deputy secretary of state.

O'Hare and Parker were appointed by the governor to five-year terms.

Ehrlich also appointed Warren C. Hayman, who was the school board's vice president last year, to serve one more year, although his current term has expired.

School board members can serve two five-year terms, but Hayman was appointed in 1997 to complete the four remaining years in Stephen Burch's term representing the western part of the county. As a result, he was eligible to be reappointed for another full term.

Last week, Dulaney High School senior Peter Bacon was sworn in as student representative to the school board.

Liz F. Kay

Federal court

Methadone clinic case to begin Opening arguments are to begin today in federal court in a civil case that tests a Baltimore County law that limits the sites of methadone clinics.

The operators of A Helping Hand LLC, a Pikesville treatment facility, filed a lawsuit against Baltimore County, claiming that its 2002 zoning regulations aimed at keeping methadone clinics from opening near neighborhoods violate the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

A similar lawsuit against the county filed by the operators of another Pikesville methadone clinic settled out of court last year.

Methadone is a legal synthetic narcotic that is administered to recovering addicts to minimize their withdrawal symptoms from heroin or prescription painkillers.

Jurors were chosen in the trial yesterday. U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake told the jury that the trial could last three to four weeks.

Blake struck down Baltimore County laws regarding methadone clinics in 2002 and in 2000, saying that the laws violated the Americans With Disabilities Act because they regulated the clinics more strictly than other treatment facilities.

Laura Barnhardt

Rosedale

Work to close Beltway ramps to I-95

Ramps from the Beltway to northbound Interstate 95 near Rosedale will be temporarily closed during late night and early morning hours this week for construction, state transportation authority officials said.

Tonight and tomorrow night, the ramps from both loops of the Beltway are to be closed from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., officials said. The ramp from the westbound Beltway is also to be closed at 11 p.m. Thursday.

Drivers on the westbound Beltway will be detoured to northbound Belair Road to eastbound White Marsh Boulevard and back to I-95. Drivers on the eastbound Beltway will be detoured to eastbound Pulaski Highway to westbound White Marsh Boulevard and back to the highway.

The ramps will be closed as contractors place steel girders as part of the Rossville Boulevard bridge replacement project, officials said. The bridge construction is expected to be completed next summer, authorities said.

Schools

Information on transfers offered

Families of children attending Lansdowne Middle School can find out about transferring to other locations at a meeting tonight.

Lansdowne and Woodlawn middle schools will offer the transfer option next fall. Old Court Middle might also be required to do so.

Meetings, which begin at 7 p.m., are to be held tonight at Lansdowne Middle, 2400 Lansdowne Road; and tomorrow at Old Court Middle School, 4627 Old Court Road in Randallstown. A meeting was scheduled for last night at Woodlawn Middle.

The school system must allow children to move from certain schools and must provide free transportation under provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind law. It requires schools that receive federal Title I money - those that enroll a large number of children eligible for free or reduced-price lunch - to permit transfers if the schools don't meet performance goals on state tests.

Parents will receive a list of schools that will accept transfer students and other information, according to an announcement from the county school system.

Essex

Alumnus pledges $20,000 to college An alumnus of the Community College of Baltimore County who heads a California-based company has pledged a $20,000 endowment for business studies at the college.

Barry Feld, chief executive officer and president of Cost Plus, which operates more than 270 stores in 34 states, made an initial $10,000 payment in May toward his pledge to the CCBC Foundation, the college announced. Feld is a 1976 graduate of what was then Essex Community College and is now the Essex campus of CCBC.

Events or news items for the Baltimore County Digest may be submitted to baltco.news@baltsun.com. Information should be sent at least 10 days in advance of the event.